Wireless systems are increasingly being used to carry both data and real-time traffic such as voice. The wireless system need to be designed so that both data and real-time traffic can be carried efficiently while meeting the QoS requirements.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a wireless system that includes a base station 110 wirelessly communicating with multiple mobile units 120, 122, 124. The data packets transmitted between the base station 110 and the mobile units 120, 122, 124 can include both data and voice data packets. As a result, the QoS requirements vary between mobile units 120, 122, 124 depending on the type of data packets being transmitted between the mobile units 120, 122, 124 and the base station 110.
The present WiMax (IEEE802.16) standard includes numerous limitations for carrying voice traffic efficiently. For example, the medium access protocol (MAP) overhead can be as much 50% of downlink frames for voice traffic. Methods for conveying bandwidth allocation can be inefficient, modulation and coding selections can be sub-optimal and uplink allocations can be inefficient.
It is desirable to have a system and method of efficiently communicating transmission scheduling of data packets requiring varying levels of QoS. It is additionally desirable to efficiently communicate bandwidth allocations and improve modulation and coding selections.